The Heinz Dilemma

The Heinz Dilemma was a interview consisting of 72 boys in Chicago. Their ages were 10, 13, and 16. This interview was given to classify a child’s development of morality at each age level and from there Kohlberg charted their reactions.

The background of the Heinz Dilemma is as follows: A woman was dying from a certain type of cancer. There was one special radium drug that a doctor had found that could possibly save this woman’s life. The drug was very expensive to make and the founder of the drug was charging almost ten times as much to produce the drug. The husband of the woman with cancer tried his hardest to collect money to pay for this drug to save his wife’s life however, he could only come up with half of the money that the drug cost. the husband begged the druggist to sell him the drug for cheaper but the druggist refused and was only interested in making a profit. Due to this reaction from the druggist, the husband broke into the mans store and stole the drug in order to save his wife’s life.

The results from the Heinz Dilemma gave Kohlberg the ability to classify moral development in his 6 stages